


The Moonlight Shines At Midnight

by pylador19



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending, I Don't Even Know, I Tried, I just thought it would be a good idea, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, everyone is dramatic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 10:40:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24848419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pylador19/pseuds/pylador19
Summary: Your soulmate was the one person in the world who knew you better than anyone else. Your soulmate was someone who you would carry with you forever. Your soulmate was someone who believed in and accepted you before anyone else did, or when no one else would.At least, that’s what Ten had read in every single book he could ever find about soulmates.Every single book also told him how everyone was destined to find their soulmate; the soul mark on a person’s body determined who they were destined for.What if you were the very few people in the world, like Ten, who didn’t have a soul mark anywhere on their body?
Relationships: Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Qian Kun
Comments: 4
Kudos: 120





	The Moonlight Shines At Midnight

**Author's Note:**

> A good old soulmate AU with more angst than anything else. Ah well, I tried! 
> 
> This will probably make no sense at some points, might be a bad read, but (even though it's a good thing) there's only so much of a lockdown routine you can survive, the Premier League is back so I no longer have the TV as much as I used to, and I'm posting this purely to spite myself, and to show that the numerous re-writes this went through finally amounted to something I could post and only feel slightly ashamed of. 
> 
> Also, is there like a WayV fandom tag on this site? 'Cause there wasn't when I was writing it in the fandoms section above. (You know, some fans say that WayV isa part of NCT and others say they're not). 
> 
> The title comes from WayV's After Midnight. Has nothing to do with the actual plot of the story, but I thought it sounded cool and edgy.

Your soulmate was the one person in the world who knew you better than anyone else. Your soulmate was someone who you would carry with you forever. Your soulmate was someone who believed in and accepted you before anyone else did, or when no one else would.

At least, that’s what Ten had read in every single book he could ever find about soulmates.

Every single book also told him how everyone was destined to find their soulmate; the soul mark on a person’s body determined who they were destined for.

What if you were the very few people in the world, like Ten, who didn’t have a soul mark anywhere on their body?

At first there was no panic of anger. The doctors had told his parents that the mark would likely appear before his fifth birthday. It was becoming a much more common thing now, they assured them. When Ten’s fifth birthday arrived though, no soul mark was to be seen, and his parents had to come to the tough realisation that their beautiful, kind, innocent son would never have a soulmate.

“Why do you keep avoiding me? I thought I told you we had a connection, we’re meant to be together!”

Ten pushes the guy away from him and, rolling his eyes, pulls his jumper to the side to show his bare shoulder. “See anything here? No, because there’s no soul mark” he says, patting the guys cheek. “Hate to break it to you buddy, but we’re not soulmates.”

Leaving the guy utterly heartbroken, Ten makes a quick exit and walks towards the bus stop. Better to leave them heartbroken and let them find their soulmate, than have his heart broken instead!

Quick getaway achieved, Ten throws himself down onto a bench at the bus stop, tugging uncomfortably at his jumper. Winter in Seoul meant that it was supposed to be cold, not that annoying weather where it was cold in the morning but boiling by midday! Ten had lectures until five in the evening, and he was not about to spend the whole day sweating it out!

Suffering silently, Ten feels someone plop down next to him. Sparing a glance, Ten is met with a guy who, like him, also made the bad decision of wearing a jumper to campus this morning. Unlike Ten, he made the wise decision to wear a t-shirt underneath, his jumper wrapped around his waist. Ten takes a closer look; the guy has a folder in between his legs full of sketchbooks and other drawings. He’s pretty lean, his shirt falls perfectly that Ten can see the outline of his chest. Ten’s eyes travel up his body and notices… paint in the guy’s hair.

Sensing that someone was staring at him, the guy looks up from his phone, pulls out his earphones and glances at Ten. “Is there something wrong?”.

Ten was left momentarily speechless. The guy wasn’t just pretty good looking, he was gorgeous. Composing himself, Ten points at the guy’s hair, voice slightly chocked when he says “You… You’ve got paint in your hair.”

“God fucking dammit Hendery!” the guy curses, hand shooting up to his hair as he looked at his reflection on his phone. “Never make friends with art majors! They’re the worst!”

Ten follows the guys movements with his eyes, allowing a playful smile to fall across his face. “Aw come on, some people like men who can get a little dirty” he teases, watching the guy falter in his movement.

“E-excuse me?”

“What? Art majors are always getting messy, painting, drawing, all that jazz. Some of us like people who like getting dirty” he explains, leaning forward and resting his chin on his palm. “Bonus if they venture into sculpting ‘cause then you know they can work magic with their fingers.”

The guy splutters and flushes deep scarlet from his face down to his neck. It’s enough to finally get Ten to burst out laughing. His teasing is cut short, however, when his bus finally pulls into campus. With a sigh, Ten gathers his stuff and walks towards the bus, turning towards the guy one final time.

“Well this sure was fun!” he says happily, “You got a name? Or am I gonna just know you as art guy?”

“U-uh… Kun” the guy chokes out.

“Nice meeting you Kun! I’ll definitely be seeing you again!” Ten replies and with a wink, leaves a flustered Kun gaping after him.

“So this is now guy number… seven whose heart you’ve broken, right?”

“Jesus Doyoung, way to make me look like a player!”

Multiple protests are thrown up in an instant, wine bottles passed through the group, Ten’s protests drowned out by the others.

“Why am I the player? Doyoung’s just as bad!” Ten yells, filling up his glass and passing the bottle to Yuta.

“Doyoung only sticks to one guy. Every couple of weeks we’re hearing about some new guy you’ve messed around with” Jaehyun replies. Ten hates that he’s Taeyong’s soulmate, otherwise he would have definitely murdered him by now.

“Whatever. He was way too whiny and needy anyway” Ten dismisses, sipping on his wine, memories from earlier in the day flooding back. “Speaking of guys though, there was this guy I met at the bus stop this morning.”

Groans fill the room, but Ten ignores them and refills his glass. “Look, just hear me out! Art major, nice looking chest, _gorgeous eyes_ , and so easily flustered!”

“Confirmed. Ten is an official player!” Yuta exclaims, others throwing in their agreements until Taeyong stirred the conversation elsewhere. Though they came from different walks of life, and Ten didn’t have a soul mark like they did, but they never judged him or treated him any differently. That’s all he could have asked for.

“Give me the blackest coffee you can manage.”

“Well, this is definitely a different side to you from the other day.”

At the sound of the familiar voice, Ten looks up from his phone to find Kun standing on the other side. If he was more alert than he was at the minute, he would have immediately started teasing him, but he wasn’t. Instead, Kun would just have to put up with his suffering.

“I stayed up all night writing and submitting an essay” he replies, checking the time on his phone. “I now have about five hours to finish and submit another essay, so I need the blackest coffee you have to get me through this. I’m not above begging for caffeine right now.”

Kun laughs and leaves Ten for a moment before a cup of the blackest coffee is placed in front of him. Ten takes a long sip and happily sighs, Kun watching in mild concern.

“You’re going to crash so hard later.”

“Well if I do, please feel free to scream at me or force me to write this essay. I haven’t failed an essay yet and I’m not about to do it now” Ten replies, slinking away and finding a table in the corner of the café.

Fighting through the lack of sleep, Ten manages to get through a good chunk of his essay in a short amount of time. He thought he would have learnt his lesson by now and wouldn’t leave his essays until the last minute, but what was the university experience without writing a couple of late essays here and there? Ten is reading through his essay when a new cup of coffee is plopped in front of him, Kun watching him a small smile on his face.

“I didn’t order this.”

“I know, but you look like you’re about to keel over any moment” Kun replies, taking the seat across from Ten. “Plus I thought it would be fun watching you struggle whilst on my break.”

Ten rolls his eyes and takes a sip of the coffee, groaning in delight. Settling down across from him, Kun picks up one of the books that Ten was reading, his eyes widening comically.

“You’re studying law?”

“What, can’t a guy like me specialise in such an area?” Ten teases, watching in amusement as Kun flicked through the book. This was always the reaction he got when he revealed what he was specialising in. It never got old.

“Not gonna lie, would never have had you as a law guy” Kun replies. “Something like literature, maybe, but definitely not law.”

“Bet you find me even more attractive now, huh?” Ten asks, earning a light laugh from Kun as the latter began to silently read through the book.

“You seemed to be focusing on soul mark cases. Or, the lack of soul marks” he comments a short while later. It was secretly why Ten had chosen to study law. He didn’t what he was going to do to bring about change for people born without soul marks, but he couldn’t just sit around whilst he lived a comfortable life and there were others suffering.

“Well, you know, gotta start somewhere. Why not start at something controversial?”

Kun nods and continues reading, leaving Ten in relative silence before suddenly asking, “Do you think soul marks are worth it? Are they really that important?”

“How can people still stick to this idea that a matching mark means you’ll be happy? A matching mark doesn’t mean you’ll live happily ever after… or some shit like that” Ten replies, Kun considering his words before putting the book back and opening his own sketchbook he had brought with him.

Ten uses the rest of Kun’s break trying to see what Kun was drawing, but the latter was very quick to stop Ten from peeking, even threatening to pour coffee onto Ten’s laptop. The thought of losing all of his work that warranted a probable caffeine crash later on was definitely not worth a bunch of drawings.

Kun finishes his break with a promise to bring Ten as many cups of coffee as he need. Five cups of coffee and a rushed essay later, it’s not until Ten is packing his stuff away that he notices a phone number scrawled onto a coffee stained napkin.

_[ten:_   
_leaving your number on a napkin? how romantic!_   
_are you trying to woo me? ;)]_

_[kun:_   
_was starting to think you hadn't found it_   
_trust me, if i wanted to woo you it wouldn't have been during me break]_

_[kun:_   
_so... you gonna tell me your name or are you just coffee guy?]_

_[ten:_   
_i would tell you but the suspense of wanting to know will just keep you begging for more ;)]_

_[kun:_   
_-_-_   
_you're about become a nuisance aren't you]_

_[ten:_  
 _honey you have no idea!]_

“Are you still talking to that guy?”

Ten slowly looks up to see Taeyong frowning at him, slowly putting his phone face down onto the sofa. “So what if I am?”

Ten had been messaging Kun since he got his number. There wasn’t a day where his friends didn’t see him on his phone. Now that Kun had finally found out Ten’s name, he was finding as many ways as he could to put it in his messages.

“Ten” Taeyong sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. “We’ve been through this before… too many times actually!”

“And? You saying I can’t have any fun? Not everyone is lucky to have a soulmate” Ten huffs, anger slowly building inside of him.

“I didn’t say that. What I’m saying is that I’ve seen you like this before only to have your heart broken a short while later… I don’t want to see you sad again.”

Though Ten had been the one to end things with the last guy he got involved with, there had been others before who had treated Ten like shit. How many times had Taeyong come home to find Ten curled up and crying on the sofa? How many times had his friends sat and watched Ten drink himself silly, trying to forget his latest heartbreak?

“Taeyong, I know you’re worried about me, but I’ve got it under control!”

“Sure, like I haven’t heard that a million times before” Taeyong huffs, gathering his stuff and marching to his bedroom. Ten’s left alone with the television playing quietly in the background, his phone vibrating with a new message.

“We like to drink with Jaehyun ‘cause Jaehyun is our mate, and when we drink with Jaehyun he downs it all in eight… seven… six…”

The club isn’t necessarily the best in the city, but the drinks were cheap, Jaehyun was the biggest fucking lightweight on the planet, and the group always got a kick out of Doyoung trying to flirt with the bartender.

“Have you no shame?” Ten exclaims, he and Yuta laughing at Doyoung as shots are passed around the group.

Doyoung had first seen the bartender- Johnny- in passing on campus. At first, Doyoung took a quick peek and thought nothing more apart from that he was good looking. When they came to the club for the first time, and Doyoung was finally able to get a good look at him, he was determined to make Johnny his, even if it was for a little while!

“You know, I think he forgot a drink. I’m gonna go see if I can free one out of him!”

Doyoung jumps up from his seat and the rest of the group rushes forward to pull him back down. The last thing they needed was Doyoung embarrassing himself, or worse, getting the group kicked out because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants!

The group definitely did not have the money to be out tonight, but after so many essays, breakdowns, and late-night drinking sessions, there was just one way they could unwind and relax! Ten liked these nights out, they always followed a similar pattern; the group would get either slightly drunk or very drunk, have a dance together, Taeyong would end up trying to snog Jaehyun up against the wall (and fail), and they would all lose each other at some point in the night but somehow find each other at the end of the night.

“What are you doing here? I thought I said we were over” Ten whines, twisting his wrist out of the hand grasped tightly around it. The last thing Ten could remember was dancing with Yuta. Taeyong and Jaehyun had wandered off somewhere and Doyoung was still trying his luck at the bar. Yuta had told Ten he would be right back and the next thing he knew, the last guy he ended things with was dragging him off somewhere.

“How could you move on so quickly?” the guy asks, tightening his grip. “How could you dance with other men after everything we had?”

Ten was too drunk to be dealing with this right now. “I told you we were over, I’m not yours. Let me go, I’m going home.”

The guy doesn’t let go, no matter how much Ten tries to pull his wrist away. He was telling himself not to panic, but the longer this went on and the lack of friends around to help him was sobering Ten quicker than he liked.

“I think he told you to let him go.”

Both turn around and Ten nearly cries in relief when he spots Kun standing there. The guy is so shocked that when Ten rushes towards Kun, he lets go and takes off, leaving Ten with his arms wrapped around Kun’s waist, looking at him with a stupid, goofy smile on his face.

“Kun! What are you doing here?”

“We’re here celebrating Lucas’ birthday… what are you doing here? Why are you alone?”

“I lost them” Ten pouts, “They’re around here somewhere!”

Ten attempts to take Kun back to where he last saw his friends but stumbles, nearly falling flat on his face if Kun hadn’t caught him around the waist.

“I think we need to sober up before we go searching for your friends” Kun suggests, lifting Ten to his feet and trying to find somewhere to rest. Before they could move however, Ten suddenly stopped and as Kun asked him what was wrong, he proceeded to vomit all over the floor.

“So pretty. You’re so pretty Kun!”

Kun shushes Ten as they make their way through to Kun’s dorm. The moment that Ten had thrown up, Kun had panicked and gotten them out of the club as fast as they could, chucking Ten into an Uber, and getting a ride back to his place. Now the two of them were stumbling through halls and tripping up the stairs, Ten giggling every time he tripped over his own feet.

“Ten, we have to be quiet!”

Holding Ten up with one arm, Kun fishes through his pockets for his keys with his free hand. He didn’t even seem to care when Ten had wrapped his arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. Finally getting the door to his dorm open, the both of them fall through, Ten laughing loudly as Kun left him propped against the wall and scrambled to shut the door. The last thing he needed was one of his neighbours filing another complaint. Sighing in relief, Kun locks the door and turns to deal with Ten, jumping when he saw just how close Ten now was.

“T-Ten?”

“So pretty” Ten whispers, holding Kun’s face in his hands and kissing him.

“Handsome” he whispers, kissing Kun again.

“Gorgeous” he laughs and kisses Kun a third time. This time Kun comes to his senses and gently pushes Ten away from him.

“You’re drunk” he croaks out, clearing his throat. “Come on, you need to sleep.”

Kun ignores Ten’s whining and helps him towards the living room. They make it towards Kun’s bedroom before Ten suddenly stops, looking extremely pale.

“I think I’m gonna be sick.”

Ten wakes the next morning to the sun shining on his face. Groaning, he blindly reaches around for a pillow, slowly realising that he wasn’t in his room and instead on some stranger’s sofa.

“I’m making some breakfast if you want any” comes a voice, Ten’s head whipping up to find Kun stood at the foot of the sofa. “Or I can make you some of that death coffee you love so much” he adds, smiling when Ten winces and lets his head fall back down with a thud.

“Just give me the best glass of water you can manage, then let me die in peace” Ten mumbles hearing Kun shuffle away before returning a few moments later, glass of water and paracetamol in hand.

Ten slowly sits himself up, taking the water and almost downing it in one. Kun gingerly takes a seat at the other end of the sofa and watches Ten get a couple of tablets down him, the two of them sat in silence and avoiding each other’s gazes. What the hell was Ten doing here? How did he end up here? Where were his friends?

“Uh, just one question, how the fuck did I end up here?”

With a laugh, Kun explains to Ten about meeting him the club, promising the Uber driver that he wouldn’t throw up when Kun had chucked him in, and tripping their way up the stairs to the dorm (obviously leaving out the part where Ten kissed him a few times).

“After you threw up you chucked yourself on the sofa and immediately passed out. I was gonna leave you to it, but your phone kept ringing. Your friend Taeyong is coming to pick you up at eleven by the way, he personally told me to tell you you’re dead meat. Another friend shouted down the phone that he got the “hot bartender’s” phone number, whatever that means.”

Ten winces and finishes the last of his water. Taeyong was definitely not going to let him live this down for a while. He hated to think how worried they were. “I totally owe you for this” he says, interrupting before Kun could protest. “No really Kun, I do. You didn’t have to help me out like this, but you did. Just let me know how I can make it up to you, please.”

“Alright” Kun says after a moment, “How about this; let’s meet up more often. We only catch each other briefly on campus or when you come to the café. I want to know you more… or something like that…”

“Wait, like a date?” Ten asks.

“Sure, if you wanna think of it like that” Kun replies with a shrug, getting up from the sofa and heading back to the kitchen. Ten’s left in momentary surprise before a smile slowly creeps onto his face.

“Hey!” he calls, making Kun look towards him. “Grey looks good on you” he says, eyeing Kun’s pyjamas, making the latter laugh and the tips of his ear sporting a slight blush.

It takes a while, but Ten does eventually hold to his promise of making it up to Kun. They meet up, a lot, whether it’s to spur each other on for last minute assignments or to go on not dates that might actually be dates. The weird thing was that Ten enjoyed all of them, even if the most they did was just talk the whole time. What confused Ten the most was if these were meant to be something. He could hold himself and tease or flirt with Kun whenever he wanted, but then there would be times where was pretty sure that Kun may have been flirting with him. If they were sat together, Kun would hook his foot around Ten's ankle and would leave it there. When they walked, they were so close that their hands would bump against each other, it felt like Kun would go to hold his hand and then let go. Ten was also sure that he once caught Kun drawing a picture of him in his sketchbook. 

Any doubts that Ten came to a head one afternoon when he and Kun got caught in the rain, running through the streets of Seoul until they found some shelter. Ten watches Kun as he laughs, droplets of water dripping from the tips of his hair, before pushing him up against the wall and kisses him. There’s a moment of doubt that this isn’t something Kun wants, but then Kun kisses him back and everything changes from there.

When they meet after that, they spend most of their time making out. They make out a lot. Ten tries to take it the next step, sometimes Kun lets him and sometimes he doesn’t. They’re taking it slow, something that Ten had never done with a guy before. They go on dates, they hold hands in public, they laugh, Kun introduces him to some of his friends and Ten properly introduces Taeyong to Kun.

It’s perfect. Too perfect. It doesn’t take long for Ten to remember; he doesn’t have a soul mark, he’s not sure if Kun has a soul mark. He doesn’t know what to do.

“I mean, you could just be an adult and ask him.”

“Really? That’s the best you two can offer?” Ten asks, eyes darting between Yuta and Doyoung.

“You know we’re not good at this shit. This is something that Taeyong does” Yuta replies and Ten knows this. It was the reason why he didn’t go to ask Taeyong; because he would tell Ten exactly what he didn’t need to hear but was the truth.

No matter how perfect his life was at a minute, Ten knew he would need to have this conversation at some point.

It takes a further two weeks for Ten to finally grow a pair and have the conversation with Kun. It was why he was currently going from room to room in the art block looking for him. He could have messaged him and asked him where he was, but Ten was a coward, and the longer he dragged the inevitable, the better prepared he could be.

Ten hears a shout, walking towards the source of the noise and looks through the door to see Kun. He recognises Xiaojun and Lucas and guesses the others must be his other friends. They’re messing around, trying to throw paint at each other. Ten smiles at the sight, about to go in and break up their fun, when he spots it. It’s small, hardly noticeable that Ten hadn’t seen it before, but he could see it this time; the unmistakeable mark of a small arrow on the inside of Kun’s arm.

Of course. How stupid could Ten have been?

Something breaks inside of him, and Ten has the sudden urge to breakdown crying then. He runs to the nearest bathroom to hide himself, hears the group laughing and joking as they walk past moments later.

Now Ten was angry, pissed. Had Kun just been humouring him this whole time? Was this karma coming to kick him in the ass for all of the other guys he messed around with? This was all bullshit. The idea of soulmates was fucking stupid!

Which was how Ten found himself back at the club at the end of the week. He had begged the others to come with them. They had some inkling that something had happened, but they weren’t entirely sure what. They had agreed to come, but Ten had ditched them within minutes of arriving, and was now pinned up against the wall making out with some random guy, grinding against him.

The guy sucks and bites against Ten’s neck, promising to be straight back after using the toilet. Ten didn’t care, the quicker he forgot about Kun, the better.

“Ten?”

Speak of the devil. Ten turns his head to glare at Kun who was staring back equally hurt and angry.

“What do you want?”

“I was going to ask you why you had been ignoring my texts and calls, but now I think I know why” Kun replies, glaring at the marks on Ten’s neck.

“Why do you care about what I do?”

“Why do I care?” Kun asks incredulously. “Did nothing over these past few months mean anything to you at all?”

“Not when the guy you thought you liked has been lying to you this whole time!” Ten replies angrily, voice rising slightly, as Kun’s anger turns into confusion.

“Lie to you? What the hell have I been lying to you about?”

“Cut the bullshit Kun! I’m not stupid! What? You didn’t think I’d figure it out? Thought you could just string me along and then break my heart?”

“Ten what are you talking about?” Kun asks, voice turning to desperation.

“I saw it. The mark. Why not just tell me at the beginning? Would’ve saved you all of this right now!”

Kun pauses, taking Ten’s words in before laughing. It’s the most bitter and pained laugh that Ten has heard, and he hates how he was the one who caused it, but his anger and heartbreak was spurring him in another direction.

“Fine, fine. If that’s the way you want to be, go and jump to your conclusions. I’ll leave you alone if that’s what you want. Thanks for nothing I guess.”

With that, Kun turns around and walks away, Ten watching him leave. Immediately everything he had said come crashing back onto him. He didn’t mean what he said. How could he have hurt Kun like that? What had he done? He had just let go the best thing that ever happened to him.

Ten tries to go after him, but the panic inside of him rises too quickly. It’s too hard to breath, too hard to walk, everything feels like its closing in on him.

“Ten? Are you okay?”

Ten jumps when Taeyong’s hands grip his shoulders, forcing him to look at his friend. “I… I can’t breathe… I dunno… get me out of here!”

Taeyong doesn’t delay, taking Ten’s hand and rushing him outside. He sits Ten down on the pavement, trying to talk him through whatever this thing was. Ten tries to focus on his voice, tries to calm himself down, but the gravity of what he had just done was too much for him.

In the week since that night, Ten had become a different person. He didn’t laugh as much as he used to. He buried himself in his university work, only emerging to drink a lot more than he did previously. He argued with his friends a lot more too, Taeyong had to throw himself in between Jaehyun and Ten to stop them from fighting. Ten had completely changed for the worst, and no matter how his friends tried to help him, he wouldn’t take it.

“Look at you. Look at you!” Taeyong exclaims, ripping the wine bottle out of Ten’s hand. “It’s eleven o’clock on a Sunday morning and you’re letting yourself get into this state?”

“Why the fuck do you care about what I do with my life?” Ten asks, drinking some of the wine left in his glass.

“I’m your friend, Ten! Have you forgotten that? Friends worry and care about each other.”

“If you’re going to nag to me about the mess I’ve gotten myself into, don’t bother, I know what I’ve done.”

“No, no. Stop playing the soulmate card, this isn’t gonna get you nowhere!”

“Why can’t I? You’ve always nagged me before. “Stop this Ten you’re gonna hurt yourself!”, “I can’t stand to see you said again Ten!” I get it, I’m a shitty person, I don’t need to hear it all again, least of all from you!” Ten shouts, leaving Taeyong momentarily stunned.

“Fine. I’m done. If you wanna ruin your life, go ahead. Fuck you if you think I’ll ever waste another ounce of effort trying to help you.”

Ten lets Taeyong walk out and slam the door angrily behind him. The silence that follows is deafening and he can’t even bother to bring himself to take another sip from his glass. In what can only be described as a moment of weakness, Ten reaches over for his phone and only hesitates a second before he’s calling Kun. Of course he doesn’t pick up, so Ten waits until the call goes to voicemail.

“Uh, hi… it’s me” he begins, biting his lip so hard he could draw blood. “I know I’m the last person you want to talk to right now but I just. I don’t know. I-I know I fucked up massively and I know that saying sorry will never help but I… shit.”

He’s not sure when the tears started, and he’s not even aware of them before he feels a few teardrops hit his arm. “I just want to see you! I miss you! You deserve an explanation and instead I’m being such a dickhead. I broke your heart and now… now… you know what, forget I ever called you. I’m sorry. I won’t bother you again.”

Ten ends the call and chucks his phone down next to him before crying into his hands. Later that evening, Taeyong finally returns to their dorm with Jaehyun in tow. His original idea was to ignore him for as long as possible, despite Jaehyun’s insistence that they talked all of their frustrations out. The second that Taeyong walked in and saw the state that Ten was in however, he ran over to his friend, hugging and crying with him.

Ten doesn’t hear back from Kun. By Monday, he had gone onto campus losing any hope of Kun contacting him. Even if Ten would look out for Kun in between classes, and even if Yuta may have caught him doing so once or twice, he never mentioned it to his friend.

On Tuesday, Ten found himself rushing through an essay that he definitely did not leave until the last minute (again), surrounded by his friends who were equally rushing through their essays.

“You only have yourself to blame” Taeyong says, sipping his coffee as he happily submits the essay he was wise to finish a few days earlier.

“Let me finish this and then I’ll take your chastising mum” Ten replies, ignoring the laugh that’s shot back at him. 

Ten is almost finished with his essay when Yuta finally graces the group with his presence. He slowly wanders over, eyes wide, paler than he was the day after their fresher’s party back in first year.

“Hey guys… um, so… I just met my soulmate.”

In the ensuing chaos of asking questions and pushing Yuta down onto a chair before he fainted, the group promise the librarian that they’ll be quiet after the threat of being kicked out is angrily directed towards them. Ten can feel Taeyong’s concerned gaze on him, but he’s fine. He’s happy for Yuta. He really is.

On Wednesday, Ten’s stood outside Kun’s coffee shop debating on whether to go in or not. He can see Kun at the till, smiling and laughing like nothing was wrong. Ten could see, even from outside, the bags under his eyes though. Ten even makes it to the door before chickening out and leaving before Kun noticed him.

It’s on Thursday when the group accidentally meet Yuta’s soulmate. It was a complete fluke; Ten had been dragged out to a restaurant by Taeyong, Jaehyun and Doyoung (“You haven’t eaten a proper meal in days. Don’t think about lying, I live with you!”). By sheer luck, the restaurant they decided to go to was the exact same one that Yuta was in.

At first, Ten couldn’t quite put his finger on where he recognised Yuta soulmate from. When they were finally introduced to him- “Everybody this is Sicheng. Sicheng, these are the poor unfortunate souls who have the pleasure of being my friends”- Ten finally realised who he was; he was one of the guys in the room with Kun on that day.

It looked like Sicheng seemed to recognise Ten too. Whilst he was kind and shy to the others, anytime he spared a glance in Ten’s direction, he would glare at him and hardly speak to Ten.

It was no surprise then that when Ten went to the bathroom, Sicheng followed him, watching him as Ten washed his hands.

“You know, I’ve known Kun for a long time and I know he’s far from perfect… but what you did to him, that was cold.”

Ten finishes washing his hands and looks at Sicheng’s reflection in the mirror, waiting for him to continue.

“I don’t exactly know what you said to him, but it hurt Kun a lot. He hardly eats, he hardly sleeps, and I don’t even know the last time I heard him laugh. Whatever you think about him, you’re wrong.”

“Are you going to say anything useful?” Ten asks, “Or are you just gonna stand there and spew more crap out of your mouth?”

Sicheng laughs bitterly and shakes his head, staring Ten up and down one final time. “I will never understand what he sees in you.”

Once Sicheng leaves, Ten grips the side of the sink, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. He doesn’t even realise that Taeyong has entered the bathroom until he feels a hand on his back and nearly jumps out of his skin.

“Are you okay? Sicheng said you weren’t feeling well.”

“N-no. I feel sick. I-I think I need to leave.”

“Want me to call you a taxi?”

“Please!”

When Taeyong leaves, Ten splashes some cold water on his face, telling himself to calm down before joining his friends.

Ten spends his Friday curled up in bed. He has his phone in his hand trying to decide whether to call or message Kun. He considers going to the coffee shop again to see if Kun’s working, but the nagging voice in the back of his head that suspiciously sounds like Taeyong tells him not to. In the end, Ten spends the day in his room until Taeyong has to come and drag him out.

Ten struggles up the stairs to his dorm, phone in one hand and a heavy box of food in the other arm. He had tried to call his parents and tell them that they didn’t need to keep sending him food packages like this, but there was no way that his mum was going to listen. All it would take was a video call for his mum to notice that her son was looking skinnier than last time, looking exhausted, and Ten would find a care package in his arms a few days later.

Ten had to smile at that. Despite being in a completely different country, he could always rely on his family to pick him back up when he was feeling down. With a final struggle, Ten sighs in relief when he finally reaches his dorm. He could hear Taeyong chatting to someone and was probably expecting Jaehyun to be with him. When he finally opens the door though, the conversation dies in an instant.

“Honey I’m home” he calls out as he enters their dorm, toeing his shoes off and dumping the box in the kitchen. He’s just about to ask who Taeyong was talking to when he looks up and freezes.

Taeyong looks between him and Kun, quickly getting up and shoving his phone in his pocket. “I’m just gonna… I’ll be over at Jaehyun’s if you need me.”

Wordlessly, Taeyong grabs a jacket and heads out, leaving Ten stood there in shock and Kun shifting uncomfortably under his gaze. Sicheng was right, Kun hadn’t been sleeping or eating properly. He almost looked as bad as Ten did.

“You look terrible” is the only thing he can bring himself to say and Kun manages a huff somewhat resembling a laugh.

“Likewise” he replies and god how Ten had missed the sound of his voice.

“So what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?” he asks after a pause, slowly making his way over and sitting on the opposite end of the sofa.

“I got your message. I will admit, I was surprised when I heard it and how choked up you sounded… but I spent the whole week debating whether to actually come see you or ignore you” Kun explains, playing with the hem of his jumper. “Then Sicheng met his soulmate who, surprise, ends up being your friend. He told me how horrible you looked and somehow that was the thing that spurred me over here.”

Kun laughs bitterly and Ten waits to see if he says something else. Instead, they sit in silence and the outside traffic drowns out Ten’s thoughts.

“Look Kun, I don’t know how I can make this better, but I really am sorry” Ten finally says. “I was a complete dick, but I saw you with… and I just-”

“Taeyong told me you have no soul mark.”

Ten freezes, not bringing himself to look at Kun or even say anything. Why deny it now? Why try and lie like he had done any other point in his life?

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Kun asks, and Ten manages to laugh, albeit a little hysterically.

“Why? It’s not exactly a thing to be proud of is it?” he replies. “Half the world ignores your existence and the other half recognise you’re there but do nothing to make your life better! Because it’s always going to be the same heartbreak; you find someone you really like, but they have someone else destined for them and always leave you behind! Because I really like you, but you also have a soul mark… I didn’t tell you because I liked what we had” he finishes in a whisper, finally looking towards Kun who was looking back extremely confused.

“There it is again, the soul mark. Ten what are you talking about?”

“Please don’t treat me like an idiot Kun. Anyone but you. I went to see you one day after a lecture, I saw you in a room with your friends… and I saw the mark on your arm.”

A moment of silence passes between them. Ten waits for the inevitable rejection, the apology, before Kun left him and he would be heartbroken all over again. It doesn’t come. Kun tentatively reaches out to try and take Ten’s hand in his, but the latter flinches away.

“Ten, it’s not real” he finally confesses. “It’s a tattoo.”

Time stops and Ten tries to wrap his head around what he’s just heard. All this time, Kun was like him? He didn’t have a mark? It was just a stupid tattoo? Ten didn’t know what to do; whether he should run and lock himself in his room, yell at Kun for never telling him, or even calling Taeyong and begging him to come back and sort this out for him. In the end, all he can manage is a strangled “What?”.

“I was born without a soul mark. Doctors told my parents it would probably turn up when I was older, but it didn’t. My parents didn’t care, they never cared. China however did care; they’re not like South Korea or Thailand” Kun explains, running a hand through his hair. “My parents knew that my life would be difficult if anyone ever found out, so when they could, they paid a tattoo artist to give me an illegal mark. As long as I had a mark, I would be treated like everyone else. We would be the only ones who knew.”

Kun again looks over to Ten, this time with pleading eyes, begging him to believe. “I would have told you, believe me I would have Ten. That night at the club I should’ve stayed and talked to you, but I was so hurt I just… please believe me Ten. The mark isn’t real. I don’t have a soulmate. If I was going to wait for anybody it would always, always be you.”

It all suddenly feels too much for Ten and he has to get out of the room. His chest is tightening, he can feel his breath quickening and he can feel himself panicking again. When he gets up, he stumbles, and Kun is there to catch him. He tries to fight away from Kun, trying to ignore how he’s helping Ten through his panic attack. Finally the wall cracks and Ten breaks, sobbing loudly against Kun who just holds him close, whispering into his ear.

“Fuck… fuck I’m so fucking sorry!” he cries, grabbing a fistful of Kun’s jumper and burying his face in Kun’s chest.

“Don’t apologise. You never have to apologise to me” Kun replies gently, rubbing his hand up and down Ten’s back.

They stay like this, Ten crying into Kun’s chest and Kun hugging him tightly. Eventually, Ten exhausts himself and falls to the floor, but Kun is there to catch them and they fall slowly together.

Finally feeling calm enough, Ten slowly detaches himself from Kun’s chest. He looks at him, slowly cupping his face in his hands and sighs happily. “You have no idea how much I like you.”

“Well that’s good, because I really like you too” Kun replies, turning his head to kiss Ten’s palm.

“Scratch that. I fucking love you.”

Ten surges forward and kisses Kun again, and again, and again. Each time Kun kisses him back and holds him tightly, silently promising to never let Ten go again.

“I think I know what I want to do.”

Kun looks up from his sketch book to where Ten is lying on the grass, basking in the sun, and smiles at him. “I should hope so, you’re just over a year from graduation. What brilliant idea have got then?”

Ten playfully nudges Kun with his foot and sits up to rest on his elbows. “I want to work towards greater equality towards people with no soul marks. Better employment opportunities, equal pay, decrease in harsh treatment… just to give future generations an actual fighting chance I guess.”

“It won’t be easy” Kun replies, going back to his sketchbook. “You’re going to make a lot of enemies on the way. You’ll be surprised at how many world leader actually like the current laws in place.”

“I can’t just sit around nagging about the laws all the time and not do something, can I? I’ll obviously have my parents support, Doyoung is already drawing up draft plans as we speak, and I know Taeyong, Yuta and Jaehyun are practically going to be my bodyguards! Plus, I have a super-hot partner who is amazing at art and can help create amazing campaign posters.”

“Oh is that all I am to you? Your graphics designer?” Kun jokes.

“My _super-hot_ graphics designer” Ten clarifies, reaching out to take Kun’s sketchbook and huffing when Kun places it out of his reach. “Are you ever going to let me look in there?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I’ll just keep this as my own private thing.”

“How is it private? I know that all you sketch in it is me” Ten says, lunging forward and falling flat on his face when Kun jumps out of the way. There was only one thing left to try.

“Please? I’ll even let you draw me nude to sweeten the deal.”

“Oh I’m definitely holding you to that, but you’re never going to look inside” Kun teases, laughing when Ten charges him to the floor and they roll around on the grass together, having no care in the world what others thought as they passed. The moment was perfect. Everything in Ten’s life was finally perfect. It could only go up from there.

“You really did it?”

“No Kun, this is just an elaborate scheme to pull the best prank ever known to man.”

Kun ignores the remark and instead focuses on the brand-new tattoo adorning Ten’s arm. Ten had joked about getting a matching tattoo for the past few months, but Kun didn’t actually think he was serious.

“… Why?” he asks, fingers gently going over the cling film that wrapped around the tattoo.

“I know that having a mark is never gonna mean anything for us, but I thought it would be nice to have something meaningful for the both of us” Ten replies with a shrug.

Kun doesn’t say anything and Ten has a split-second thought that maybe this was a bad idea after all. The thought is quickly wiped from his mind when Kun surges forward to kiss him, hugging him tightly. Ten smiles into the kiss and makes a note to tease Kun about this later. For now, he was going to bask in the moment. This was nice. Everything between them was nice.

(- Kun properly introduces his friends to Ten two weeks after they make up. Sicheng would still be a little hostile to begin with, but eventually warms up to him. Ten will find Sicheng one of the most adorable people he knows 

\- In an ironic twist of fate, Doyoung would think that life was finally on his side when it turns out that Johnny was his soulmate. Nights out at the club were about to become so much more interesting! 

\- For Ten's next birthday, Kun would gift him the sketchbook. Inside is all of the sketches of Ten that Kun had every drawn of him

\- When Ten finally began campaigning for better laws, it wasn't easy. There were arguments, tears and threats. Despite this, Ten wouldn't give up; his parents were by his side, his friends had practically become his full time campaign team, and Kun was right by his side, holding tightly onto his hand. Every step that Ten would take to bring change, Kun was going to be there every step of the way.) 

**Author's Note:**

> Stan WayV, stream Turn Back Time, go listen to the whole album if you haven't already.


End file.
